{"id":295353,"date":"2026-06-04T03:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295353\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T03:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:31:10","slug":"how-ben-mallah-uses-1031-exchanges-to-grow-his-portfolio-real-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295353\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ben Mallah uses 1031 exchanges to grow his portfolio | Real Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nova<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An aerial view shows the Nova Southeastern University building at 3650 Colonial Court in Fort Myers. Real estate investor Ben Mallah purchased the 60,305-square-foot office and classroom building for $17.25 million.<\/p>\n

LSI Companies Inc.<\/p>\n

A YouTube real estate personality with more than 1 million followers has brought his tax-deferring investment strategy to Fort Myers, purchasing the land and building occupied by Nova Southeastern University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ben Mallah, owner of Equity Management Partners, a real estate investment company based in Largo, paid $17.25 million for the 60,305-square-foot office and classroom building at 3650 Colonial Court, at the southeast quadrant of Interstate 75 and Colonial Boulevard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Justin Thibaut and Hunter Ward of LSI Companies represented the seller, Colonial Interstate Investments, which paid $1.3 million for the then-undeveloped land in October 2004. The building was completed in 2008.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ari Ravi of RIPCO Real Estate represented Mallah\u2019s company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful property,\u201d Mallah said. \u201cWe\u2019re happy with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Real estate investor Ben Mallah has amassed more than 1 million followers on YouTube, where he shares investment strategies and property acquisitions. Mallah recently purchased the Nova Southeastern University building in Fort Myers.<\/p>\n

Ben Mallah<\/p>\n

Nova Southeastern University will remain in place as a tenant and continue operating there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not developers,\u201d Mallah said. \u201cWe don\u2019t develop the properties. We take things that just need somebody to come in and bring them back to life. Luckily, with this asset, Nova needs very little. It was just a good investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nonprofit school. We definitely need more nurses and (physician assistants) in this world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mallah\u2019s company recently sold two other properties. It sold a BJ\u2019s Wholesale Club in the Jacksonville area for $13.5 million and Tampa Bay Center, an open-air shopping center near Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, for $37.7 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mallah wanted to find a tax shelter for the combined $50.3 million. By purchasing the Nova Southeastern building, he deferred part of the capital gains taxes through a 1031 exchange.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The term 1031 refers to the section of the Internal Revenue Service code governing such exchanges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mallah said his company is scheduled to close on a Fort Myers-area multifamily housing complex by the end of June to complete the exchange.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only game we play is Monopoly,\u201d Mallah said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mallah<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ben Mallah discusses one of his real estate holdings in a video posted to his YouTube channel. The investor recently acquired the Nova Southeastern University building in Fort Myers as part of a 1031 exchange.<\/p>\n

Ben Mallah<\/p>\n

Mallah operates his business using the BRRRR method: buy, rehabilitate, rent, refinance and repeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt really good about the project,\u201d Mallah said of the university building. \u201cWe have a great tenant. We toured the building. It\u2019s in excellent condition. We felt it would be a great asset.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thibaut said 1031 exchange transactions are more common than many people realize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not known unless it\u2019s shared by the person who\u2019s doing the exchange that that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing. We do quite a few,\u201d Thibaut said. \u201cWith them comes another layer of complexity to the deal. A lot of folks, especially when they\u2019re moving money from other states into Florida, they\u2019re placing funds from somewhere else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something utilized by professional real estate folks and more often than not, those with pretty substantial real estate holdings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mallah said his real estate holdings are worth between $400 million and $500 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, if it weren\u2019t for the 1031, I probably never in my life would have grown to the level we\u2019re at,\u201d Mallah said. \u201cIf you sell a property and you have gains on that property, you can defer the tax on your gain, which is approximately 20%. If you make a million bucks, you\u2019ve got to pay the government $200,000. Instead, we don\u2019t touch the money. We roll the money into the next deal. Then everybody wins. It\u2019s worked really well for our family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ben Mallah appears in a video produced for his YouTube channel, which focuses on commercial real estate investing and property acquisitions. Mallah said the channel helps educate aspiring investors while documenting his deals.<\/p>\n

Ben Mallah<\/p>\n

Mallah said he will return to Fort Myers soon to close on the second deal and film a future YouTube video. He has posted more than 500 videos since launching the @BenMallah channel six years ago. Most videos run 20 to 30 minutes. More than a dozen have surpassed 1 million views.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Titles include \u201cMy $90 Million Shopping Spree\u201d and \u201cHow to Buy an Apartment Complex Part I.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mallah, 60, grew up in New York City, joined the Army and relocated to Florida in 2003, when he began his real estate career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe YouTube channel was just something somebody approached me with a few years ago,\u201d Mallah said. \u201cAs corny as it may sound, I\u2019m helping people. I came from the worst neighborhoods. I came from nothing. I\u2019m not highly educated. I try to encourage everybody. Real estate should be a part of your life. It may not be the focus of your life, but it should play some role in your life. We enjoy helping people. We get a kick out of it. We\u2019re not corporate. We\u2019re just regular people. I get a lot of good feedback from it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mallah said the channel also generates revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely some streaming revenue,\u201d he said. \u201cI get calls from 20-year-olds who are just starting out. They\u2019re able to learn. We like helping people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An aerial view shows the Nova Southeastern University building at 3650 Colonial Court in Fort Myers. Real estate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[14695,124475,209,211,210,62818,2947,3063],"class_list":["post-295353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-1031-exchange","tag-ben-mallah","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-nova-southeastern-university","tag-real-estate-investment","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}